Dark City (October 9, 2007)

This was a free screening on a Tuesday night at the IFI. I’d been told that The Matrix blatantly ripped off parts of this movie, which is true. But, I can also see why The Matrix was far more successful. Both feature the same sci-fi stilted dialogue and bad science, but where The Matrix had leather, pleather, computing machines, and other manifest shiny, Dark City has none of the above. And while noir, a Truman Capote-esque Mad Scientist™, and a crackpot distinction between memories and personality (changing the former but keeping the latter stable) have their place, they are by no means shiny.

This is not even getting into the VampireZombieAliens (VZAs) who want to capture the essence of humanity and to do so create a floating walled city somewhere in outer space with no daylight where they freeze everyone at midnight (or noon) to re-vamp everyone’s memories. At least I THINK that’s what it was. I was mostly distracted by Riff Raff (from Rocky Horror Picture Show) who did, despite all evidence to the contrary, have another film role. Playing Mr. Hand, the VZA who gets the Erstwhile Hero’s fake memories injected into his head so he can be one step ahead of Erstwhile Hero, who has become a hybrid of humanity and the VZAs, who the VZAs are trying to destroy before he figures out what’s going on and destroys them. Also, Mr. Hand (or the Erstwhile Hero’s past personality/memory combo) likes to kill hookers and leave bloody spiral cuttings on their corpses.

Now splice in a little Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in a subplot between the Erstwhile Hero and Jennifer Connelly (his lounge singer wife) when memories get erased or redone, and you’ve got it. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s everything.

I couldn’t decide which inspiration was drawn on the most: Star Wars, James Bond, Double Indemnity, or Metropolis. On some level, it doesn’t really matter, because I also couldn’t stop laughing when a small child VZA hissed HE MUST BE KILLED to preclude the climactic fight scene between the Erstwhile Hero and the resident director of the VZAs who looked like the Emperor in Star Wars.

Maybe one of the problems with seeing a movie like this is that better movies have developed its themes before and after. It is a very interesting and cool hybrid of lots of different genres, and tries to go somewhere else with all of them. But this does not mean it is a good movie, and I’m not sure if I liked it or not.

Am I glad I saw it? Yes. Especially because it was free.